House of Cards recap: Frank can always get what he wants in Chapter 3

Though it talks a good game about power — see Frank’s Chapter 2 speech about the failings of money versus power, for instance — on a thematic level, House of Cards seems less about power per se than how it is we get people to do what we want. Having power over somebody is probably the most efficient way to do that, obviously, but it’s not everything, and it’s not even necessarily effective.

Consider the martyrdom of our erstwhile education reformer in Chapter 2: He’s a congressman, and ostensibly as powerful, at least in the public eye, as Frank. But he knows nothing about actually enacting his reforms: he’s a policy guy. He thinks that if he just presents the best case, with enough good reasoning and clear statistics, people will see the light and follow. Unsurprisingly, he’s dispatched before this series is even 90 minutes old.

This chapter really brings into focus the fact that Frank’s great gift is getting people to do what he wants (he’s almost too gifted, but more on that in a sec). Granted, some of that is just because he has pure, unadulterated power over somebody: consider his pull on Russo (whose strings Frank doesn’t have to manipulate this episode). But as Frank gets pulled in to his “small-ball” constituency hassle, his power is limited, and it’s up to him to find more creative ways to get what he wants. And man, is he ever a master at it.

This was House of Cards‘ first lengthy foray into the ridiculousness of politics, and it worked quite well (so well, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Frank’s shark among the guppies routine, although maybe that’s just my latent love of Armando Ianucci expressing itself). The scene of Frank and the local lawmakers debating what, exactly, the peach water tower looks like was priceless, as was that casually dry shot of Frank’s disgust with the whole prospect playing out in front of a framed picture. The humour was especially sharp given the events that actually took place — a girl crashed her car and died while texting, although she was texting something about the peach’s appearance — and it’s encouraging that the show managed to effectively tackle that from all angles.

But, to get back to power, it was impressive to watch Frank whip up a compromise that would sate the family, then convince them to take it, first by trying to glad-hand them at their daughter’s funeral — I like him trying brushing off his security detail with the heroism line, and then just, again, openly using his power to get him to stand down — and then whipping up a fake eulogy for his father about the negative consequences of hate to break down their defences. His aside about how “Humility is [Southerners’] form of pride” was one of his wiser addresses, and his sheer evisceration and compromise with his nascent political rival was just a bit of candy.

Throughout all this, though, we got to see Frank getting people to fall in line, whether it was laying out the pragmatic course for the council or prostrating himself so the family would drop their case. Even his dead olive branch offer of another Congressional seat to his opponent was less about magnanimity than Frank knowing that’s good to have people who owe you, if only so you can use what they can offer to get something else you want from someone else you want it from.

The minor plots also had shadings of this. Claire couldn’t impress her all-star potential hire with fancy photographs and promises of money, but she found another way in. I’m not sure if the appeal to the sisterhood and the do-gooder-y ambition were sincere, but they got her what she wanted, which in this case was both a prestigious employee and the apparent trust of the same (though it would not totally surprise me if Claire sells her out down the road). Meanwhile, Zoe’s boss exercises some of his power — that “No TV for a month” line really put an exclamation point on the whole paternalistic thing Zoe was complaining about, huh? — but you can tell he hasn’t convinced Zoe of his point of view: she’ll do what he wants for now, but for how long? He hasn’t really convinced her, and for that there’s going to be trouble, even if she doesn’t go to Nightline.

I still have trouble buying Zoe’s storyline, but the more problematic thing at the moment is the ease with which Frank does everything. Granted, his problems this week were relatively minor — although he did finesse the teachers’ union entirely over the phone — but he’s basically strode right through any potential obstacle in the series so far. It’s fun to watch him work, but even that’s going to get old if there don’t seem to be any stakes. I hope that the roadblocks in his way at least start to make him sweat a little in the episodes ahead.

Random thoughts

Frank’s other casually wise line: “Let’s not jump to ultimatums,” which gets the teachers’ unions willing to chat, at least.

Frank doesn’t use him this episode, but Russo does prove what a complete creep he is with his little sex-for-dinner moment. They’re making it pretty easy to watch him get browbeaten.

Zoe’s TV appearance had another let’s-get-to-know-the-journalist moment, which, again, is just something anyone actually cares about, and would never actually happen on a newscast. It did give them a chance to ham-handedly bring up that whole old media/new media thing again, though. So when will Zoe start working for whatever this world’s equivalent of Slate/Politico/whatever is? Man I hate this storyline.

More apparently genuine tenderness on the Frank/Claire homefront. They are a cute couple, in the way that it’s a stirring affirmation of the power of life when two tiger sharks have a baby.